JUVE Comment

This Ruhr Valley firm is most respected for its filing work in patents and, with a slight delay, raised its headcount for the upcoming UPC. Having suffered a departure last year, AH now boosted its specialties in mechanics, engineering and electronics with a patent attorney from its own pool of young talent. Thanks to the market visibility of a number of partners (e.g. Albrecht) and long-established connections to many notable Mittelstand companies and some corporates from western Germany, the firm has now ascended to first place in the Ruhr region. This was helped by the fact that it enjoys much steadier development than its main competitors in Essen. The firm does, however, have a strong competitor in western Germany in the shape of Cohausz & Florak, as AH’s patent attorneys are nowhere near as visible in litigation.

Strengths

Patent prosecution with technical expertise in engineering.

Recommended individuals

Dr. Rainer Albrecht, Dr. Andreas von dem Borne, Dr. Jörg Nunnenkamp (all patent attorneys).

Team

7 patent attorneys

Practice

Clear focus on patent prosecution; filing with broad technical expertise. Opposition and nullity suits. Occasional infringement proceedings for regular clients, generally in cooperation with external lawyers.

Clients

Public knowledge: much filing for Aldi, Hochtief, TI Automotive, Kaldewei, Novoferm, Mondi, Simonswerk, ThyssenKrupp and Vorwerk.